Photo: Beatrix Hauptmann

As school districts and county offices of education make plans for safely reopening schools in the fall and helping students cope with their trauma, it is urgent that they also recognize and make space for teachers to process and heal from their own feelings of loss and grief.

Nearly every teacher we have ever worked with puts their emotional needs aside in order to address the emotional needs of their students when tragedy inevitably occurs in our schools. We experienced this firsthand in our own classrooms when we were high school teachers. That capacity to harness deep empathy for others is one of the most admirable characteristics of teachers but is also deeply damaging for their mental health in the long run without support.

But now, in the face of racial violence and the immense loss of life due to the global pandemic, teachers are coping with tremendous loss, anxiety and sorrow even as they work harder than ever at their rapidly evolving jobs.

Saddled by this emotional weight as well as anxiety for the precarious financial situations families are facing, many are approaching a breaking point. According to a recent USA Today poll, nearly two-thirds of teachers dont feel they are able to properly complete their jobs under current conditions and 1 in 5 may not return for the fall.

Teachers will be the first to tell you that students are the highest priority. The need of students to heal in the time of this pandemic is substantial and long-lasting. We know the widespread illness, death and economic insecurity will have a lasting effect on this generation of young people.

But teachers are also calling out for help and ignoring them will only hurt students further. Concern for student wellbeing and trauma is frequently brought up right now, but we fail to provide the same empathy for teachers, treating them as unfeeling automatons within our fragile and bruised education system.

Yet, real recognition of the trauma teachers face is almost entirely absent from district and state-level discussions around how to reopen schools. While we do not know how every district is responding to teacher needs, we know that as a whole it is not enough. In weekly digital gatherings with hundreds of English teachers from across the country, we consistently hear that teachers are hurting and need support to process complicated emotions.

Unfortunately, there are no quick-fix solutions for teacher healing. Mandating teachers to attend training courses on how to handle trauma and loss likely would only increase the burdens on time and capacity that they already face. Likewise, it is not enough to assume that the upcoming summer break will heal all wounds. Simply ignoring teacher loss does not make trauma disappear regardless of the weeks or months of time. Further, with current infection rates around the country rising sharply right now, we can assume that this summer will not serve as respite from the losses and uncertainty our nation continues to face.

Yet many plans for supporting teachers largely amount to providing additional professional development and resources that teachers may elect to access. On top of that, already overworked administrators are asked to monitor teacher wellness. In short, the proposed plan further taxes the energies of not just teachers but also administrators while they are attempting to operate schools under unimagined circumstances.

Acknowledgement from state and national officials of teachers need for time to process and heal from these traumas would be a start. Such acknowledgement would let parents, students and community members know the difficulties teachers now face every day on top of a host of new work demands. It also would help teachers accept that its OK to grieve.

Online sessions for teachers to share their feelings candidly are one way to help teachers process their emotions. Ensuring that teachers have and can use official bereavement leave to take compensated time for healing would be another.

Districts are moving quickly with plans for the next school year. But measurements for how far apart desks can be, staggered reopening schedules and class-size reduction plans and mask protocols will not salve the pain teachers are feeling right now. A reconfigured school cannot function effectively without the energy, ingenuity and love imparted by teachers.

How students learn and process their grief and feelings in schools will depend on how well their teachers are mentally and emotionally prepared to return to the classroom.

We owe our teachers space, time and resources for healing.

Antero Garcia is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. Nicole Mirra is an assistant professor of urban teacher education at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, the State University of New Jersey.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. Commentaries published on EdSource represent viewpoints from EdSources broad audience. As an independent, non-partisan organization, EdSource does not take a position on legislation or policy. We welcome guest commentaries that reflect the diversity of California. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review ourguidelinesandcontact us.

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COMMENTARY: Teachers need opportunities to heal before the school year begins - EdSource

With the majority of the population in Wales still at home, many are using this time to improve their health and fitness.

Here, Dr Peter Herbert, a Physiologist at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and a leading authority on fitness in the older generation discusses why its the middle aged or elderly that will benefit the most from leading a more active lifestyle.

If any good comes from this pandemic it will be highlighting the importance of physical activity. In 2015, my research colleagues and I, presented four scientific papers from my work with elderly people, presented at the American College of Sports Medicines World Conference in San Diego. These papers provided the evidence how older people can benefit from exercise programmes that take less time to complete than traditional, longer duration programmes and achieve greater fitness and health benefits.

The findings of the study received a massive amount of publicity proving the interest and appetite for learning more about the health and fitness of our ageing population. This led to me establishing the Centre of Health and Ageing at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in 2016 has enabled many people from mainly the local community, to benefit from regular exercise both physically and positive lifestyle changes.

Since the Coronavirus changed our lives back in the UK in March, I am now seeing more people walking, jogging or cycling during the lockdown many of whom are often new to exercise. What I hope, is that the physical and mental benefits theyre starting to enjoy, will encourage them to continue to exercise once the constraints of the pandemic are over.

I need to point out that this podcast is aimed at the over 40s and I am using that age as an indicator of when health and fitness often declines and illnesses become more prevalent.

The facts are that exercise can significantly improve health and enables a more active lifestyle and it is usually the middle aged or elderly that will benefit the most. There is irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of regular physical activity in the prevention of several chronic diseases. These include; cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, depression, osteoporosis and premature death. This good news is further enhanced by the linear relationship between physical activity and health status, meaning any increase in physical activity and fitness will lead to additional improvements in health.

Almost daily I get asked by people who desperately want to become more active, what exercise should they be doing and how much. My first response would always be Check with your doctor to find out if you are well enough to do so.

Before any start can be made lets make sure we know exactly what types of fitness should be included in an exercise regime. The two most important are aerobic capacity, also known as cardiovascular fitness or CV, and muscle strength.

Ill talk about CV first. This is exercise that can maintain and improve the efficiency of your heart and lungs.

Unfortunately, for those beginning exercise for the first time there is a lack of straight forward guidance on what type of exercise to take, how long should it last and how hard to push themselves.

If you regard yourself as extremely unfit then walking is a good place to start. Make sure you have comfortable shoes, ideally training shoes and a fairly flat route. The speed you walk should be casual and does not make you breathless. No more than 20 minutes. Your feelings when arriving home will give you a good indication of how to approach your next walk. If you found it extremely easy you can make things a little harder the next time by making ONE of the following changes. You either slightly increase the speed of walking, or walk further, or include some small hills. Any one of these will cause your breathing rate to increase, meaning your heart is having to work harder and therefore get stronger. These will all be great indicators of how your fitness is improving. In time when you are able get more out of breath, but still be able to hold a conversation you could introduce what we call interval training. Try walking casually for 4 minutes, briskly for 1 minute which will get you breathing more heavily, then casually for 4 minutes and so on. This will raise your heart rate followed by some minutes of recovery, then speed the walk up for another higher intensity effort. This can be continued a number of times, depending on your fitness.

Should you be starting to exercise, and already having some degree of fitness you might want to begin by jogging.

Exactly the same progression principles apply; gradually raising the intensity of the exercise by increasing the speed, the distance or hills. Initially, you will get some muscle soreness, or stiffness but this will disappear after a few days

There is a possibility that jogging, and maybe even walking does not suit you due to arthritic aching knees that do not take kindly to repeated foot impacts.

If jogging is not for you cycling could be the answer. The downside is that you might have to buy a bike! The upside is there is no repetitive impact, so less aching after exercise; you can travel further and you will usually recover more quickly after cycling than a long run. Again, the same principles apply. Intensity, which means increasing the speed, how long your session lasts and how difficult is the route.

All of these forms of exercise will cause the heart rate to increase, raise the bodys metabolism and cause it to use more calories. Provided you do not eat any more than you usually do you will lose body fat. The greater the intensity of the exercise up to a moderate level is excellent for weight loss. But remember, this does not always come easy. The slower you walk or jog the fewer calories used, so to get a higher calorific expenditure you need increase the length of the session. An important reward from losing weight, particularly body fat, is it has a remarkable effect on general health, and activities will get easier. It can decrease the risk of heart problems, it can lower your blood pressure, and lower your cholesterol levels. Reversingtype 2diabetesis possible, but it requires meal planning, healthyeating, and regularexercise.

The second and other very important aspect of fitness is muscle strength. I should point out that there are many people that already have good strength because of the physical nature of their work, and it would be less important for them to use this type of training. Should they stop working, it can be substituted by resistance training. If we dont use our muscles, they will weaken, very quickly. This, combined with ageing, is called sarcopenia.

The benefits of maintaining body strength is it enables us to continue to perform tasks that would not be possible with weakened muscles. As we age these strength improvements can provide greater independence and improved quality of life. Muscle losses which are almost always caused by lack of use, can be delayed and often reversed by resistance training. The most common method of exercising muscles, but not the only one, is weight training. This usually means going to the gym.

If that is what you prefer, you should insist on getting qualified advice on how to use the weights and perform the correct exercises. If the gym is not for you, you might want to train at home, and there are a number of exercises, such as press ups, sit ups, leg squats, arm curls that can achieve significant improvements in strength and muscle mass.

For more information on how to perform any of these exercises you can go to http://www.physicalliteracy.cymru and click on the Centre of Health and Ageings page.

The Centre for Health and Ageing provides the opportunity for all members of the community in South West Wales who are over 50 years of age to have access to personalised exercise programmes and one-to-one expert advice on aspects of health, fitness nutrition and lifestyle.

Before current restrictions, we ran regular classes throughout the year and have now started producing online videos to support exercising at home. Remember, before commencing any fitness routine,please consult your doctor. Our programmes support and improve quality of life by addressing the unique needs relating to physical activity in middle and later life, ensuring that each of us can enjoy active healthy lives throughout the life-course.

Listen toDr Peter Herbert delivering this piece as part of UWTSDs Perspectives podcast series on thePerspectives page as well as onSpotifyApple,iheart,Deezer,Google,CastboxandPodchaser.

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The importance of physical activity for the over 40s - Wales247

The Hurry-Up is your nightly dose of updates from the Ohio State football recruiting trail, keeping tabs on the latest from commits and targets from around the country.

It had been expected for a little more than three weeks, but on Friday, Mater Dei (Calif.) four-star cornerback Jaylin Davies officially came off the board, announcing his commitment to Mario Cristobal and the Oregon Ducks.

Davies heading to Oregon, however, should not be chalked up as a loss for the Buckeyes on the recruiting trail. That runs contrary to the recruitments of Troy Stellato, JC Latham and Hudson Wolfe, who each committed to Southern programs and should be marked as misses for Ohio State. Those were tough for the Buckeyes to take, but Davies' situation was different.

When Davies put Ohio State in his final four in May, the Buckeyes looked to be the clear favorite for the top-150 talent, and we believed that if they pushed for him, Davies would have committed to the 2021 class. That would have required a visit from Davies, however, and that would not have happened until at least August with the recruiting dead period extended and perhaps even longer.

Instead, the Buckeyes essentially chose to take Saguaro (Ariz.) High School cornerback Denzel Burke in the class over Davies. Though Burke has not yet visited Columbus, either, Ryan Day has been able to meet the young athlete face-to-face and evaluate him in person.

The Buckeyes, Eleven Warriors was told, weregoing to continue to recruit Davies, but there was unlikely to be room for him in Ohio States defensive backs haul and a commitment would not occur until at least the fall. Either way, Davies is now officially off the board, and the Buckeyes lone remaining defensive back targets in the class are Derrick Davis Jr., Jordan Hancock and Tony Grimes in that order of most likely to least likely to wind up in the class.

Davis recruitment is likely to come down to Ohio State and Penn State with Clemson and Georgia also involved.Flipping Hancock from Clemson to Ohio State is starting to gain a small bit of steambut remains largely unlikely as we sit here today.And Grimes-to-Ohio State also remains unlikely,though a visit and continued push from Kerry Coombs and Matt Barnes could change things there.

Obviously, Ohio States top priority is closing out its 2021 class with a bang, with the five highest remaining uncommitted targets being J.T. Tuimoloau, Tywone Malone, Emeka Egbuka, Jager Burton and Davis (probably in that order).

They are also keeping a keen eye on the 2022 class, as steady and thorough film evaluation continues on that front before they are able to start making stronger pushes there.

But the coaching staff is also looking at the horizon toward the 2023 class, especially toward in-state prospects, as the relationship-building process begins very early with the best players in the state.

This weekend, we are introducing two key in-state names to get to know early on in this process, as you are likely to hear about these two players quite a bit in the years ahead.

Today, we are looking at Mentor rising sophomore Brenan Vernon, a strongside defensive end with nine offers to his name alreadyfrom Duke, Indiana, Kent State, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame and West Virginia.

Vernon is a 6-foot-5, 245-pounder who has a quick get-off at the snap, great lateral quickness and great athleticism, especially for his age. There is a lot of chatter already that Vernon could be the top-ranked player in the state of Ohio by the time he is a junior or a senior, and if he does earn that billing, he would join Zach Harrison (2019) and Jack Sawyer (2020) as recent in-state defensive ends to earn the No. 1 spot in the state. Vernon says he is aware of those expectations, but he is not letting those burden him.

I definitely feel pressure, but I like to just stay in my own little zone and just worry about myself, Vernon told Eleven Warriors. I try not to worry about what's going on with others in the football community. I'm just worried about myself and the work Im producing.

Vernon touches base with Ohio State director of football relationsTim Hinton and defensive line coach Larry Johnson every week, as he and Johnson continue building a relationship that started last summer at a one-day Ohio State camp. Johnson worked with Vernon at that camp, critiquing and correcting technique in how Vernon was using his hips and upper body, and he showed Vernon some hand-throwing techniques, as well.

Johnson and Co. have not yet offered Vernon, but it feels like its only a matter of time before that occurs.

And while it's still very early in the recruiting process for Vernon and he has yet to get enveloped in the crazinessof it all, he is already heeding advice on how to handle himself when things do begin to ramp up. Hesays some weeks are more hectic than others when it comes to recruiting.

The biggest advice I get is from my coaches, Vernon said. When times get rough, they'd really be the ones stepping in and getting me in a right state of mind when it comes to all this.

Theyve said to just do your thing and let the recruiting take care of itself, meaning don't mess your head up by continuously thinking of it and stressing about it.

In the meantime, Vernon is focused on improving his own play and taking his team to another level. Vernon and his Mentor teammates have been getting back onto the field for workouts on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and hes happy to be back out between the lines.

It was real frustrating not being able to be working with my team each and every day, Vernon said. Weve adjusted to it quickly. I just don't think about the fact that everythings different. I just go in and put in the work that has to be done.

While Vernon says there was a bit of an adjustment period on that first day back to the field, he says that he was staying in shape during the quarantine by doing sprints around his cul-de-sac, bodyweight exercises and being fortunate enough to get into a weight room twice a week.

He says some results started to show: I was able to put on some good weight with what I was doing.

Last season, Mentor went 13-1 before losing to Pickerington Central, 28-21, in the Division I state semifinals. The Cardinals outscored their opponents, 368-42, backed by one of the best defenses in the state. Theycapturedthe Greater Cleveland Conference championship with a 7-0 mark in conference games.

This season, Vernon and his teammates are back for more.

Theres some growth to occur in all of us, but we definitely got a squad, Vernon said. Its just a matter of how bad they and myself want it.

As a freshman in 2019, Vernon finished seventh on the team in the three main tackling categories total tackles (45), solo (27) and assisted (18) and finished ninth with three tackles for loss. Hetallied two sacks. In his sophomore season, Vernon is hoping to make more strides.

The main goal is to be the best the best that offensive tackles ever played and the best player that team has ever seen, Vernon said. My goals to be the best in whatever I do.

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The Hurry-Up: Cornerback Jaylin Davies Comes Off the Board, An Introduction to Rising In-State Sophomore Defen - Eleven Warriors

By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Updated: June 19, 2020 12:32:02 pm MIND diet recommends eating nuts and berries to prevent loss of brain function. (Source: getty images)

As the name suggests, MIND diet aims to prevent dementia and loss of brain function as one ages. It is a combination of Mediterranean diet and DASH diet, considered to be healthy diet plans.

Mediterranean diet is plant based and involves consumption of foods rich in vitamin and other nutrients. is heavily dependent on seafood, fresh produce, whole grains, nuts and seeds. In a study recently published in Alzheimers and Dementia Journal, researchers claimed that this type of diet benefits people with high genetic risk of Alzheimers.

DASH diet or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, on the other hand, focuses mainly on consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats, to reduce the risk of heart disease. The diet is low in red meat, salt, added sugars and fat.

Researchers combined the two forms of diet to design MIND diet. According to Healthline, it involves eating more of the 10 foods MIND diet encourages eating and less of the five foods that it suggests you limit.

The 10 foods that MIND diet recommends include:

* Green leafy vegetables for six or more servings per week.

* Other vegetables in addition to leafy vegetables at least once a day.

* Berries at least twice a week. They are known to have antioxidant benefits.

* Nuts up to five servings or more each week.

* Olive oil for cooking.

* Whole grains like oatmeal, quinoa, whole-wheat bread or brown rice for at least three servings daily.

* Beans, including lentils and soybeans at least four times a week.

* Chicken (not fried) at least twice a week.

* Red wine, not more than one glass at a time. Red wine contains a compound resveratrol. In a study published in Neurology, Dr R Scott Turner and his team found the compound to slows down Alzheimers.

The five unhealthy food groups in MIND diet include red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried/fast food.

Read| Alzheimers: Understanding the disease, and attitude to dementia in India, world

Another study published in Alzheimers and Dementia Journal in 2015 concluded that MIND Diet promoted a slower rate of cognitive decline equivalent of 7.5 years. It added that following the diet, even in a moderate amount, could significantly reduce the risk of Alzheimers.

MIND Diet, according to International Food Information Council Foundation, is also known to reduce oxidative stress as it is rich in antioxidants. And because it is a combination of Mediterranean and DASH diet which prevent cardiovascular diseasesit is known to have a similar effect on improving heart health and reducing the risk of diabetes, which could otherwise become risk factors for Alzheimers disease.

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MIND diet: Eating these foods can improve brain health - The Indian Express

Before training camp, every NFL team has obvious concerns that must be addressed if they are going to have a great season. Those teams also all have non-obvious needs that are not often discussed but hold just as much importance. Here is my breakdown for every team.

Arizona Cardinals

OBVIOUS: Can the Cardinals improve on defense next season?

During Kliff Kingsburys reign as a head coach in college, his defensive unit was always one of the absolute worst in the NCAA. Last year, the Cardinals ranked 30th or worse in 23 defensive stats, and Chandler Jones had over half the sacks on the team. Who will help him? Will the addition of rookie first-rounder Isaiah Simmons along with free-agent defensive tackle Jordan Phillips and free agent linebacker Devon Kennard improve the unit?

NON-OBVIOUS: Will the Cards develop an effective Red Zone offense that will score touchdowns rather than settle for field goals?

The Cardinals ranked 29th in red...

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From the GM's Eye: Every team's obvious and non-obvious questions for 2020 - The Athletic